Coaches What makes a good program director?

[Valentin]

Hi Everyone,

I was wondering if the board members can help shed some light on this for me. In every club I have worked at so far, there has always been a team director, but they never did much more than some basic administration towards getting kids signed up for meets and handling some fees. Now that does sound like part of the job, it seems like a huge component is missing, eg. leadership.

What should the team directors position really reaquire? What would coach like to see from their team directors?

Thanks

 

[gymcoach26]

I'm not sure if we are the norm or not, but we have several directors.. Team director, rec director, preschool director. None of which is the owner. Our team director is responsible for sitting down with the rec director to make lesson plans. They show up for most if not all fundraising and special events. They report each meets outcomes on the team bulletin board and recognize any special achievements. As you mentioned, they also schedule meets and send emails about fees and deadlines.

 

[Valentin]

Thanks gymcoach26. All those sounds like fairly standard admin tasks, what about leadership? how would you like to see the team director make use of his/her leadership role?

 

[GymSurvivor]

In our gym we have the Team Director, TNT Director, Preschool Director, Tumbling Director (Who is also the recently started boys invite director) and the Rec Director. All in addition to the owner.
Along with lesson plans, keeping track of and training the coaches in the their department, rotation schedules and some admin stuff. They all also coach a LOT in their field.
The Team director is the Head Coach of the team. The Rec director does a LOT of rec. classes, as does the preschool director. The tumbling does the majority of the tumbling classes. You get my point here.

They have once a week meetings with the owner where they go over admin stuff.

All the directors are also expected to show up at fundraising events, be in the parades etc...

As for leadership with the team director, well considering they are also the head coach they seem to run the team in general. I mean they are in charge of getting together with the other team coaches to discuss what to expect of the kids. How practices are being run etc..

 

[AmandaLynn]

In an ideal situation, the Program Director should be responsible for overseeing the direction of the entire program. This would include: Staff training & continuing education, lesson planning, setting goals for each portion of the program that they oversee and setting plans with individual staff members on how to best achieve those goals. Also, the Director should ensure proper communication between the staff and the parents and/or boosted club, the staff and the gym's administration team, the admin team and the booster club, etc. Basically, they are there (in addition to their coaching duties, obviously), in order to ensure effective communication, make sure that everyone is on the same page and working toward a common goal.

 

[BlairBob]

The Team director in gyms I've been at has always been the Head Coach. Exactly as Amanda said. Responsible for overseeing all coaches, education, programming, etc.

I think though only WAG programs generally have these not MAG. Not enough bodies in MAG programs, coaches or boys.

 

[chalkbowl]

We have a team director AND head coach. I think when you split it up like that a lot less of the "leadership" falls under the team director. The team director is essentially in charge of the meet schedule, collecting fees, turning in rosters, and making any other roster changes. They additionally take on scheduling of rotations for team, posting meet scores on the team bulletin board, and creating a monthly team newsletter.

Head coach takes on everything else. Head coach has the final say in all team coaching matters and also holds instructional classes for the recreational teachers. Both head coach and team director work a majority of their hours with the team program and are there 6 days a week.